


Shift and Settle

by palliris



Category: Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them (Movies)
Genre: Gen, but it can be read as romantic or platonic !!!, im srry, the prompt was also rlly vague but i think this applies well enough ???, this is rlly gen, yet again im srry
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-12-26
Updated: 2016-12-26
Packaged: 2018-09-12 05:28:56
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,610
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/9057622
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/palliris/pseuds/palliris
Summary: Credence finds that he fits in with the other beasts just fine.





	

**Author's Note:**

  * For [Die_Melodie](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Die_Melodie/gifts).



> IM SO SORRY like literally right after i put in my requests and offers i started to rlly rlly dislike the newt/credence ship and high key rlly like original graves/credence so u can imagine my,, surprise,,,,,, at getting a n/c prompt aha 
> 
> but i rlly tried ahh !!!! so it can be read as either romantic or platonic gay sons being comfortable w each other and everything in between

They go to Britain, at first.

From there it’s the frigidness of the Swiss Alps, to the towering beauty of the Eiffel tower, and the warmth of Turkish food made in the heart of the country. With each new place they visit, the deep feeling stirring in Credence seems to settle in his bones. It’s a deep, swirling sickness in his toes that tingle and tangle in his veins, racing until it consumes his heart and all he’s left with is the wispy husk of a body.

He slips up, and each time renews that fatigue, cuts another hole in his soul, and batters his mind until he can’t find any consistent coherency. When Credence finds his mind washing over, breath quickening but heart slowing, he tries to lock himself away in the case.

It’s become a sort of home for him; the briefcase of wonders.

The animals accept him to a fault, because, after all, Newt had taken him into the case as another creature to be taken care of. Credence had almost been offended, at first, but the pulsating urge to shift and _settle_ had overtaken him before he could think, could even _feel_.

Newt had always tried, and had always accommodated Credence in ways that he never thought possible before. But sometimes the pleasing allure of roaming wild and letting the beast inside of him take over was too much to bear. His darkness sweeps over the landscapes, scurrying from large enclosures to fitting inside the nooks and crannies of the smaller exhibits.

He’s learned the animals, in time, and knows the calm temperance of the Graphorns to the adventurous nature of the Bowtruckles. There’s a subtle companionship he finds with the aloof Niffler and a pleasing calm that settles on him when he’s sequestered next to a band of Occamies.

Newt gives him that time, and he’s immensely grateful for it.

When he had first slipped into the briefcase, Credence hadn’t necessarily been looking for Newt, per say. But the outpouring of bright and tempting warmth had drawn him in as if it were a whirlpool. The pull he feels to this place made him creep in, as if on nothing but the breeze, and Credence had been far too gone to care.

The guilt that overtakes him sometimes is still a burden to bear, but Newt makes him _better_.

They are currently in Canada, chasing some sort of white, furry beast around. It isn’t too spectacular, but New had said the thing they were really after was hiding inside the menacing thing’s fur.

It rears back as Newt sprays a dust over it that seems to make it calm down, become lucid and dazed. He thinks the Englishman might have drugged the thing, but Credence just wants to be out of the snow as quickly as possible.

There’s a spell for this, that he knows, but the two of them had been too rushed for time to cast any sort of warming spells.

The predator inside of him rumbles around, knocking his insides back and fro. Smelling a whiff of the crazed, primal scent from the animal in front of them, Credence tempers it with a strong caress and a glance at Newt’s harried form.

There’s a brief period where Newt seems to pause, and Credence focuses on moving quickly. He’s been tasked with parting the fur to see where the small bug is hiding, and he lets the beast purr inside of him for a second before it crawls out of his mouth.

The appearance is more solid now, and his health seems to run parallel to that of the beast’s. Where it was once was mostly translucent verging on transparent before, the blackness oozed out in a more opaque manner. It swirled and swayed, seeming to run like liquid down a flat plane, until it reached the coarse, white hairs.

Now that he’s closer he can tell that it isn’t necessarily white, so much as it is a light, peachy yellow nearer to the skin.

The beast scours over the animal, searching for the small insect they were here to liberate. It helps that he can now steady his hands by himself, but Newts constant drone of idle chatter doesn’t hurt.

When all’s said and done, they capture the small beast and watch as it cowers quietly in the bottom of a glass box. There’s a low buzzing coming off from it, and the fear he feels from it had made the blackness almost reluctant to unhand it in the first place. Urging the beast to willingly be caged once more is always somewhat of a big deal, but Newt is always, _always_ there to provide help.

_It’s not a cage_ , Newt will always try to convey one way or another. _It’s an enclosure- one very much like the ones my beasts live in._

The beast _likes_ Newt. It is more easily calmed by the man, and Credence is even more thankful for that. It follows his lead, heeds his call, and sits obediently for the next order.

Credence had almost hated himself for it at first. In more ways than one, the creature represents _him_ ; represents the magic he’s given up (however unknowingly), represents a clear indicator of his mood, and represents Credence’s actions.

So whenever it curls around Newt’s body, enveloping him in a cold, dense hug of sorts, Credence cannot help but feel nothing but embarrassment.

Blinking away his thoughts, Credence almost smiles as it curls back into his body, tucking itself away without hesitation. He can tell it doesn’t like the cold as much as he does, so it isn’t a surprise that it clings to the inner walls of Credence’s body like a fleshy blanket.

“Well it was quite a pleasant surprise that everything went so well,” Newt says from above him as they climb back into the case to stow away the brown, shiny bug. The instantaneous warmth that greets them makes Credence smile. “How do _you_ think it went, Credence?”

“Well,” Credence mimics shortly, solely because he’s still unused to long responses. “Great, almost.”

“I would hope so, being that we traveled so far from Zimbabwe to get here!”

And from there, Newt draws his scarf and begins to detail the specs of the beetle-like creature they had just captured. It flickers around briefly, and almost seems to disappear against the glass for a second before reappearing once more.

As he listens, Credence relaxes minutely as Newt’s hand brushes past the back of his neck and a warming charm passes through him like a warm tidal wave.

“-good for all _sorts_ of things; if they weren’t so hard to find, I would have more than just one. But they are being hunted for their abilities, poor things, and I have to find as many as possible to relocate them back to Antarctica,” Newt continues on, picking the box back up and moving it into the snow-topped enclosure. “Usually you would find them in places where it’s so cold you’d be left with frostbite in an hour, but recently they have been increasingly exported accidentally on Willowbacks. Those are mainly used for the unique property of their tusks, and the Brow Beetle had been just another perk.”

The two of them move together to place it on another beast with long tendrils of blue, flowing hair that smells like jasmine. Prepared before they had left to acquire the beetle, the small horse-like beast croons softly.

“It’s just for a week or so, darling, don’t worry,” Newt promises the animal, smoothing a hand over its flank before releasing it back to its herd to frolick in the snow that’s falling down anew.

Listening to Newt babble will always make Credence work with more efficiency, all while the tension slowly bleeds out of him. The job was fairly easy, too, and it leaves Credence feeling as if he had accomplished something much greater than just transporting a bug.

And when Newt proffers his hand for Credence, he takes it without remorse.

The trip back to their hotel room is less frigid with cold this time, as Newt remembers to cast another quick spell to warm them both up. It tingles as it shoots through his body, lighting Credence up as if there was the lick of a flame on his heels.

Through the streets Credence tries to make himself as small as possible, but Newt takes his hand and a different sort of warmth washes over him.

The beast inside of him whispers and shifts pleasantly, and Credence can’t help but agree with the things it seems to murmur to him. Even while the room is small, it feels wide and yawning in the face of what he’s experienced before. It’s quaint, though, with one bed and a few chairs, as well as a nicely placed table.

Credence flounders onto the bed without thought. He hums, and Newt seems to hum back, and everything’s just a bit perfect. There’s even a small novelty that he can relish in such well made cloth, even though Credence tries to never bring up that sort of sentiment as it makes Newt’s eyes dim.

“Settling in alright?” Newt says, turning to place a glass of water on the bedside table.

“Mm,” he groans into his pillow, turning his head when Newt brushes a hand into his hair. The way the other man’s hand sifts through his now-growing locks makes him shudder. The beast inside of Credence presses against his skin comfortably, and he can imagine the small grin on Newt’s face because of it.

Credence melts into Newt’s warm hand, and everything’s _right_.


End file.
